The following are carrying techniques for transferring a chip component such as a chip condenser or chip inductor for inspection.
(1) Technique for forming a workpiece housing groove on a rotary disc, supplying a workpiece (object to be carried) to the workpiece housing groove, and separation-carrying the workpiece in accordance with an intermittent action (commercial inspection machine)
(2) Technique for separation-supplying a workpiece to a continuously-rotating rotary disc from a part feeder as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-266521 or Japanese Patent Publication No. H6-87072 and then carrying the workpiece supplied onto the rotating rotary disc by only dead weight
(3) Technique for separation-supplying a workpiece onto a continuously-carried belt as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-337843
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-266521
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Publication No. H6-87072
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-337843
Moreover, as a conventional technique for a workpiece-sides (four sides) inspection method, there is a method for inspecting the upside, laterals, and downside of a workpiece on a rotary disc. For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. H6-54226, there is a configuration using a two-side inspection instrument for a chipped component. In this case, there are the following configurations: a configuration in which a rotor plate is transparent and a configuration for delivering a workpiece.
(1) Configuration in which a rotor plate is constituted of a transparent member (e.g.: hard glass) and upside and both laterals of workpiece are inspected by three CCD cameras disposed on to recognize the downside from through a transparent rotor plate
(2) Configuration in which two sides (upside and one of laterals) or three sides (upside and both laterals) of a workpiece present on a rotary disc are inspected and the workpiece is delivered to the next rotary disc to inspect the remaining two sides (downside and the other of the laterals) or one side (downside)
Moreover, as a technique for improving a suction plate structure of a rotary disc for sucking and carrying a workpiece, a configuration disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-31241 is known.
Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-31241
Because a workpiece suction hole is formed in the case of this configuration, it is necessary to form a suction hole by laminating at least cover plate portions at the upside and downside of a plate portion on which a slit for suction is formed and in this case, three or four component members are necessary.
FIGS. 6 and 7 show a conventional chip-component carrying apparatus and show a configuration for delivering a chip component 1 as a workpiece by two rotary discs. This apparatus is provided with a part feeder 50, lower rotary disc 51, and upper rotary disc 52, in which a plurality of suction holes 53 are formed on the downside of the upper rotary disc 52. A workpiece carried on the continuously-rotating lower rotary disc 51 is sucked by the suction hole 53 at the continuously-rotating upper rotary disc-52 side to deliver the chip component 1.
When performing a visual inspection of a chip component by using the chip-component carrying apparatus, the upside and one lateral of the chip component being carried by the lower rotary disc 51 are imaged by imaging means and downside and the other lateral of the chip component being carried by the upper rotary disc 52 are imaged by the imaging means. Thereby, four-side inspection of the chip component is realized.
The following are problems of a conventional carrying technique.
(1) In the case of a workpiece carrying method, the attitude of a workpiece is not stabilized due to the influence of acceleration or deceleration when carrying the workpiece by intermittent driving. Moreover, there is a problem that a throughput cannot be earned.
(2) When carrying a workpiece by continuous rotary discs, because the workpiece is carried by the dead weight of the workpiece, an incorrect workpiece attitude occurs by the influence of a shift of the workpiece due to centrifugal force caused by rise of a carrying speed or mechanical vibration due to a change of equipment to high speed. When the state of a detection face is fluctuated due to the incorrect attitude of the workpiece, a trouble occurs in visual inspection accuracy (recognition accuracy).
(3) When carrying a workpiece by belts, similarly there is a problem that an attitude of the workpiece is fluctuated due to a vibration of the belt itself.
Moreover, the following are problems of a conventional inspection method.
(1) In the case of a detection method of four sides of a workpiece using a transparent member, though a carrying method is simple because no workpiece is delivered, dirt and scratch easily occur on the transparent member and these dirt and scratch cause a problem in an inspection accuracy and there is a problem in stable detection (originally nondefective product is confused as defective product).
(2) In the case of the conventional workpiece delivery using two rotary discs shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a workpiece carried on the continuously-rotating lower rotary disc 51 is sucked by the suction hole 53 at the continuously-rotating upper rotary disc-52 side to deliver the workpiece. In the case of this method, however, there are problems that the gap between the workpiece and the upper rotary disc 52 is influenced by the dimensional tolerance of the thickness of the workpiece, clearance control is difficult, and delivery of the workpiece is not well-performed when the gap is too large. Moreover, there is a problem that a trouble that a workpiece having an incorrect workpiece attitude is caught in the gap between the upper and lower rotary discs easily occurs.
Furthermore, there is Patent Document 5 as a suction plate structure when sucking the lateral of a workpiece. Because a workpiece suction hole is formed in the case of the technique disclosed in Patent Document 5, it is necessary to form a suction hole by laminating at least cover plate portions at the top and bottom of a plate portion on which a slit for suction is formed. In this case, three or four component members are necessary and there is a problem that a structure becomes complicated. The disclosed content of the above-described Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-31241 does not refer to the four-side inspection of a workpiece due to delivery.